Coast guard database makes oil spill penalties nearly impossible to track
By Ariel Wittenberg Jun 07 2010 1:39 p.m. 2 commentsThe U.S. government has investigated potentially thousands of BP leaks, spills and other incidents but the information is stored in a Coast Guard database that keeps key details such as investigative findings and penalties out of the public’s reach.
More than 8,000 incident reports about BP’s U.S. spills, emissions, and leaks of oil and chemicals have been filed with the National Response Center during the past decade. They range from minor clumsiness such as a tipped drum of jet fuel to the deadly April 21 explosion on BP’s Gulf of Mexico rig. The center relays each new report to the Coast Guard or other relevant policing bodies for investigation. All Coast Guard investigations are stored in the agency’s Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement (MISLE) database.
BP had 550 incidents in Mississippi Canyon, where the now infamous Deepwater Horizon drilling platform was located, according to Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation. But MISLE records about investigations and any resulting penalties can be obtained only by filing a Freedom of Information Act request for each individual incident. This means 550 separate FOIA requests would have to be filed to obtain details about the BP incidents in the area surrounding the site where BP’s drilling rig exploded in April, he said.
“Technically, it’s a database because you can request data from it,” Allison said, referring to MISLE. “But you can’t query or search the database. You have to already know what you are looking for in order to find it.”
This makes tracking trends in the Coast Guard’s policing of BP’s activity in Mississippi Canyon, nearly impossible, he said. “We would like to look and see how often BP was investigated, fined, caused trouble or had penalties, but we really can’t do that the way the data is set up,” he said. “Even if we FOIA-ed, it would just get us a pile of paperwork which would be a hassle to go through compared to a query on a database.”
The MISLE reports are only accessible via FOIA requests because the Department of Homeland Security — which oversees the Coast Guard — says each report “contains sensitive personal information” of people involved in investigations, including their Social Security numbers. In addition to oil spills, MISLE also contains information about shipping accidents, vessel boardings, pollution discharges, drilling rig accidents, and search and rescue operations.
Representatives from the Coast Guard declined to specifically comment on MISLE access, referring questions to its FOIA webpage. According to the website, FOIA requests are necessary to “prevent individuals, businesses, and government from harm resulting from the release of certain information.”
Still, Allison believes there should be a way for the government to protect personal information in the database while giving the public access to investigative reports and penalties assessed to oil companies for leaks and spills.
“It’s just a silly way to run a database,” he said.
ABOUT THE DATA
What: Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement (MISLE)
Where: Coast Guard/Department of Homeland Security
Availability: Online database with 560 GB of data
Format: General summary of information about each incident
Usability: Details about investigations, penalties must be requested via FOIA n/a
Send your tips on government data sets that you think should be made more accessible or user-friendly to datamine@publicintegrity.org. You can also message us on Twitter or discuss the project on our Facebook page. We’re eager to hear what you turn up — full credit and links will be provided to individuals whose suggestions we use in our series.
The Data Mine is a joint project of the Center for Public Integrity and the Sunlight Foundation.
[Disclaimer: Bill Allison first wrote about this story here and suggested this idea to our partners at the Center for Public Integrity.]
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So, is there a published list of these 550 incidents? That's one FOIA request from each of 550 people, and then a distributed effort to merge it all together. You have to be prepared to redact documents that have sensitive information in them, because otherwise you run the risk that Carl Malamud has amply documented of Federal court records (PACER) publishing people's Social Security numbers. But first you have to ask for enough of them frequently enough that it's cheaper to redact these *on the way into the database* than when they are requested on the way out.
The USCG does provide access to FOIA MISLE data via their webste http://cgmix.uscg.mil in the Incident Investigation Reports section. Cases that are closed (which sometimes takes years) do provide information on various spills (among many other investigations), however some will require a FOIA request due to sensitive data. Typing Mississippi Canyon in the General Keyword field provides several reports on Transocean Deepwater Drilling. You can also find data on the Deepwater Horizon in CGMIX in the PSIX database (since it is technically a vessel). Just type deepwater horizon in the vessel name field and click search. At the bottom of the page you can search CG contacts. If an investigation took place, it will link you to the details, or give you FOIA contact infomation if the case is considered sensitive. Try looking a little harder Bill. If you google USCG FOIA it comes up in the first few links!